This invention relates to quench pipes. In another of its aspects this invention relates to contacting quench fluid discharged from a quench pipe with material flowing through a quench zone. In another of its aspects this invention relates to the production of carbon black. In still another aspect of the invention it relates to the directing of flow of material in a quench zone.
Quench pipes which have two sets of orifices along the pipe, with the sets of orifices being a 180.degree. apart, so that fluid can be discharged in a patterned spray generally transversely across a quench zone, are well known in the art. This kind of quench pipe as is set forth in copending application Ser. No. 764,665, filed Feb. 1, 1977, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,138,217, is often used in carbon black reactors to provide a curtain of quenching fluid through which hot smoke is passed thereby instantly cooling the smoke to approximately the same temperature. If all the particles could be cooled to the same temperature to produce uniform particles the resulting carbon black would have excellent tinting strength. Unfortunately, most of the spray systems known in the art provide voids between the spray patterns emanating from the orifices located along the pipe. These voides allow hot smoke to pass the quench zone thereby aggravating the nonuniformity of carbon black particles formed in the process. The present invention seeks to eliminate this problem by providing means by which the hot smoke is directed into the sprayed coolant fluid.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide apparatus and method by which material passing axially through a quench zone is directed into transverse sprays of coolant fluid. It is another object of this invention to provide method and apparatus for producing carbon black particles that are more uniform and therefore have a higher tinting strength. It is still another object of this invention specifically to provide a quench pipe having baffle means attached thereto which can be readily installed or removed from a quench zone.
Other aspects, objects and the various advantages of this invention will become apparent upon reading this specification along with the appended claims and the drawings.